Kao Supassrathip Is Our May 2026 Cover Star
This month, we celebrate the art of craft and living with intention.
By Kenneth Goh - published
It’s ironic that craft is becoming so desirable at a time when everything around us is made for speed. I mean we live in Singapore—a metropolis admired for its modernity, productivity and efficiency. We tap for instant delivery. We skim more than we read. We speak in abbreviations and hand gestures. We love faster drops, instant trends and quick consumption. And yet, the things people seem to crave now are the very things that refuse to be rushed. A handwoven chair. A fragrance blended slowly and worn like memory. A garment that reveals the hours behind its construction.
Related article: Kao Supassrathip Takes The Spotlight
Top, Onitsuka Tiger. Trousers, The Frankie Shop. Jewellery; glasses, Kenneth’s own.
While working on this issue, I kept thinking about that tension. In Singapore, a new generation of perfumers is building something unexpected. Not by following the traditions of Grasse or inherited European perfume houses, but by creating scents shaped by emotion, identity and lived experience. Their fragrances carry traces of this city too. Its humidity, movement, contradictions, ambition. Singapore has always been a place in transit.
Maybe that’s precisely why scent works so well here. It lingers.
Related article: “I Find Great Joy In Giving Books New Life”: Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2026 Finalist Adelene Koh On The Art Of Bookbinding
In our artist profile, artisan Ng Si Ying approaches rattan weaving with both discipline and instinct. I like that her work never feels trapped by tradition, even while respecting it. There’s curiosity in it. Playfulness too, the kind that comes from making something with your hands and not fully knowing where it might end up.
That idea carries through the issue. Craft today is no longer only about preservation. It is experimentation. Reinvention. Designers are merging technology with handwork in ways that feel almost surreal. Fabrics sprayed onto the body. Textiles grown from biomaterials. Clothes shaped like moving sculpture. Fashion, at its best, still finds ways to surprise us. Our key fashion features explore that phenomenon and explain why the art of craft is so important to have today.
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Perhaps that is what connects all forms of craft. Not perfection. But attention. Care. The willingness to spend time on something when the world keeps insisting speed matters more. Maybe that is why handmade objects still move us. You can feel when something has been truly considered. Even before you touch it.
Carry that emotion with you always. It’s what keeps us human.
Download the digital edition from the App Store, Google Play, or Magzter.
Editor-in-Chief: Kenneth Goh
Photography: Naruebes Vadvaree
Styling: Gracia Phang
Cover look: Chaumet and Ralph Lauren Collection
Makeup: Thanonsak Adam
Hair: Benjawarn Holthaisong
Photographer’s assistants: Kajonphong Nutsongtat, Songsak Wadwaree, Miraphon Phancharoen
Stylist’s Assistants: Phi Ritwiwat, Patipan Limsuwech
Producer: Tharida Diloksongtham
Prop master: Kwanjira Sirikatipote